The British Hen Welfare Trust looks at the innovations and welfare improvements on the horizon for the commercial egg industry, that might be of interest to those of us who keep hens on a smaller scale.
It is always of great value to us as pet hen keepers to know the latest on the avian influenza situation and at the end of 2024, a five-year research project was agreed between The Pirbright Institute in the UK (a world-leading centre of excellence in the research of viral diseases in livestock) and several Chinese academic institutions. The purpose of the programme is to provide the opportunity for extensive research into different aspects of avian diseases which it is hoped will result in better diagnostics tests and vaccine development, as well as improved training for scientists at both student and post-doctoral level. Let’s hope this powerful collaboration brings about improvements in commercial poultry welfare and wellbeing too.
FRESH BEDDING
Poulterra, a US-based company, has come up with a rather attractive idea to provide crop-based bedding to poultry farms and whilst that may not sound very exciting, the most astounding aspect of this new innovation is that the product, known‘Manure-as-a-Service’, is absolutely free of charge.The product used is the highly efficient and carbon-negative grass, miscanthus, which is planted close to poultry farms and then used as bedding by poultry farmers. The only ‘payback’ is that Poulterra takes the previous year’s litter which it then uses to produce renewable natural gas and high-quality, low-carbon fertilisers.The good news doesn’t stop there as the bedding has a super absorbency so reduces moisture levels in poultry units which in turn results in better maintenance of a balanced environment, reducing the need for fans and heat input, saving more costs. In fact the whole process achieves a circular economy model on an unparalleled scale. And most importantly, the birds will be all the happier for it.
FEEDING HOUSEHOLD SCRAPS
In the UK it is illegal to feed kitchen scraps of any kind to poultry whether they are kept commercially or as pets, whether kept for eggs or for meat. This is because of the risk of disease in feeding waste that may have cross contamination with other species. However, a study led by the University of California has now looked at the potential of using ‘treated’ consumer food scraps in poultry feed. The review has considered the nutritional value as well as disease concerns surrounding the use of consumer scraps and it appears that the heat treatment used, in what is effectively a sterilisation process, is. enough to control contaminants in the finished dry poultry feed additive.The study results have been timed to emerge just as commercial use has been approved in the US with the company dehydrating food scraps and turning vegetables and fruit leftovers into sterilised, dry product that can be added to poultry feed.
AI – FOR BETTER OR WORSE?
There aren’t many areas of life that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not marching into at a fast pace, and the poultry sector is no exception. In short, AI is being used already in how eggs are graded by size and packed by huge automated machines, but there is much more to come with AI, potentially giving farmers far more accurate feedback on aspects such as feed and water consumption, early disease detection and other welfare factors. In answer to the industry’s fears of impending job losses, the AI proactivists reassure that having AI support with accurate and more comprehensive data, will leave workers on the ground more time to deal with the aspects of care that only human interaction can undertake.We hope that is indeed the case.
Picture caption: A study led by the University of California looks at the potential of using ‘treated’ consumer food scraps in poultry feed
This article extract was taken from the January 2025 edition of The Country Smallholder. To read the article in full, you can buy the issue here.
